Dorothy Bodoin, Guest Author

This week my friend Dorothy Bodoin, mystery author, is visiting and she discusses how her series came about. I’d love to visit her location, Foxglove Corners. It’s an amazing place, and so are the books. Please welcome Dorothy.

I didn’t set out to write a series.  Darkness at Foxglove Corners was intended to be a stand-alone like my first book, Treasure at Trail’s End.  When I was finished however, I missed my characters. 

While researching the setting for Darkness at Foxglove Corners, I’d learned that the sport of fox hunting was a major activity in Metamora, the real place in which all of books in the series are set.  There was even a hunt club.  I could easily see Jennet tangling with the members as an amateur animal activist—and Cry for the Fox was born.  The rest (as they say) is history.

As I added to my series, I developed a set of guidelines for myself.  First, it’s crucial to choose a setting that sparks your imagination.  I live in Royal Oak, Michigan, a city which is quite interesting, having changed dramatically since my family bought their house after the end of World War II.  They wouldn’t recognize the downtown with its restaurants and multi-story buildings today. 

I’ve always had an affinity for the country, however, and when my brother built a house in Lapeer, Michigan, I fell in love with the location.  The fictitious Foxglove Corners is more vivid in my mind than the actual place.  Details help the reader visualize the scenes and feel as if they are there.  They certainly add color.

I’ve read this advice before: Your characters should grow and change.  Readers have told me that Jennet has changed over the course of the twenty-six books in the series.  Her marriage to Deputy Sheriff Crane Ferguson has brought her happiness and taken the edge off her insecurities.  She struggles to maintain control in her high school English classes and has occasional success.  Like her creator, she loves collies and was always saving them from unfortunate situations.  Eventually I had her join a rescue league.

If a character catches my imagination, he or she returns in future books.  When I introduced Lucy Hazen in the first book, I had in mind an unpleasant, witch-like woman.  She accused Jennet of letting her collie destroy her property.  The guilty party was another dog.  Jennet didn’t like Lucy, but Crane did.  I brought Lucy back in Cry for the Fox in which she and Jennet bonded over cruelty to animals.  Eventually Lucy and Jennet became close friends. 

When Brent appeared, also in Cry for the Fox, I pictured an unscrupulous character whose desire to attract a beautiful animal activist led him to proclaim that he, too, was an advocate for the Cause, whereas in truth he was a fox hunter.  Brent is now one of my most popular characters and a good friend to both Jennet and her husband, Crane.

I always anchor my books to a season to give the illusion of time passing, but I avoid dates.  For the same reason, I avoid referring to world events.  There’s no quicker way to date a book than to mention a year or refer to a real life disaster or world happening.

On the other hand, I like to let the reader know that my characters are living in the same world as they are.  When Jennet and Crane were courting, they watched a movie on a VCR.  Now they watch movies on a DVD player and have a flat-screen television set.  Jennet’s life as an amateur detective is much easier now that she has an iPhone.

            Last, it’s important to include what you love in your series.  For me it’s old books in a series, antiques, collies (of course), Gothic novels, music, poetry, and supernatural manifestations.  Jennet has discovered that Foxglove Corners can be a hotbed of psychic activity.

 

These, then, are the rules I follow automatically.  In my May release from Wings ePress, The Deadly Fields of Autumn, the season is fall.  Jennet now has seven collies, her first, Halley, and six rescues.  Brent and Lucy play prominent parts.  Jennet has become more adept at solving mysteries, more intuitive, more able to extricate herself from perilous situations.  The Deadly Fields of Autumn is available at www.amazon.com or your favorite retailer.

 There’s a rule I wish I’d followed—to keep track of what’s going on in characters’ lives: details such as where they live, their pets, and any change in their status.  As it is, when I don’t remember a certain fact, I have to find the relevant book and reread that passage.  When your series starts to grow, this record is essential.  I’m going to start keeping track of these details today.  Better late than never. 

Dorothy Bodoin's website:  http://www.dorothybodoin.com/

Buy Books:  https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_14?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=dorothy+bodoin&sprefix=Dorothy+Bodoin%2Caps%2C228&crid=1MMYAUDUE42X2

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Newly released: Gin Mill Grill - A Sandi Webster Mystery